What about you?That’s how news breaks and then takes in my world. I am sure most of you who read this blog do it the same way I do. I am equally sure that we are the minority and that most people are going to read the news for the first time this morning in their local paper. But I think the way it goes down in our world is the way of the future and services like Techmeme are going to be the new arbiters of how news takes.Recognizing that most do not yet live this way is key for marketing to that large segment (boomers).
Browsing Category Technology
An interview with Curbplaces.com
To my knowledge, they are the only local search site in town other than our local gorilla, mycaar, which has proven to be an addictive site visited by voyeurs, active buyers and sellers and homeowners checking in to see how their property’s value is doing…. Right now there are four of us in the company and we work out of an office on Water St.Q: What is CurbPlaces.com?A: CurbPlaces.com is a website for exploring real estate in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.Q: What inspired you to start a local real estate search site?A: Several things…. I’d also like to expand beyond real-estate to other location-specifc services ( i.e. services that would work well with maps).Q: Who is your audience?A: Anyone interested in residential Charlottesville / Albemarle real estate.Q: Are you going to focus solely on Charlottesville/Albemarle or will you seek to expand to the greater Central Virginia region?A: The goal is to build the best site for Charlottesville that we can…. And tell a friend.Q: Are there any sites that you seek to emulate or learn from?A: I’m NOT a fan of the big Real Estate 2.0 players: zillow, housevalues, redfin etc. For a lot of reasons, but mostly because they come across as too impersonal and corporate.
Real estate will always be local
Forsalebylocals notes the value of local content, coincidentally on the same day that I received a heads-up about a new data mashup startup, Fortius One, which looks quite interesting. Ideally, FortiusOne will provide the ability to localize their content on websites (like my blog or real estate search site, for example), assuming they provide an API and I can figure out how to use it…. * Choosing your ideal neighborhood using crime, population and commute data * Identifying your target markets using age, income and occupation data * Educating yourself and others using pollution and environmental impact dataA map of the USA for those relocating is useless. A map with the same data, only drilled down to specific neighborhoods would be extraordinarily valuable.As Pat Kitano said:On just one map however, the obvious value is in identifying niche neighborhoods across a variety of variables…
Realtors are techno-phobes?
After thinking about Greg Sterling’s assertion that Real estate is probably the most interesting local search vertical, given how aggressive and generally savvy its SMB practitioners are (relative to the general population), how inherently local it is and how rich and interesting the consumer-facing sites are becoming…. There is a small subset of the real estate profession (found most glaringly in the RE.net) that is leading the way with implementing new technologies, but the challenge remains – how does one implement cutting-edge technology in a way that will appeal to the general populace without alienating them?… Rather than convince readers to change and use one of the various IMs, I use them all, but have found the right technology for me to make my life easier yet still allow everybody to contact me in the way they feel most comfortable.Quoting myself from an Inman News story:”The challenge that we’re facing from the technology standpoint is that there is not a critical mass yet for bleeding-edge technology. If only one person in the market has heard of it — it’s cool to be in the leading edge but it doesn’t do any good if nobody else is using it.
Empowered buyers’ online tools
Today’s buyers are far, far more empowered and knowledgeable about real estate than they ever have been, thanks to the internet. Buyers are contacting Realtors after they have done a significant amount of research using tools with which many Realtors may not yet use.Albemarle’s GIS siteOnline GIS (not Mac-friendly)Various tax records (assessments are, for the most part, wholly irrelevant with regard to market value); the individual county sites have assessment information as well.Google Maps and Google Earth, which have now been implemented on the best local search site, provided by the local Board of Realtors.Neighborhoo for graphical display of population density, housing prices, crime, etc. The data is not 100% accurate, but it’s a start.Cyberhomes – which is quite an excellent site, with the same disclaimer as that for Neighborhoo, except moreso, as the housing data is vastly incomplete. Zillow, as well.Greatschools.netVirginia’s Standards of Learning resultsMyCaar.com and the rest of the property search sites.My neighborhood series (which I fully intend to finish and would welcome reader submissions)Why put all of these together?… No amount of online information can compete with professional interpretation, guidance and advice nor can online data compare with actually walking down a neighborhood’s streets, smelling the air, waving to the neighbors and spending a little bit of time in the place you will live.Charlottesville Buyers (and Sellers) – what other tools have you found useful for searching and researching homes and the real estate market in the Charlottesville/Central Virginia area?
A new entry in Charlottesville real estate search
Their blog announced their “going live” today.From their site:Curbplaces is a real estate data website, built for Charlottesville, VA. All data is taken from publicly available websites and databases.Curbplaces is a project of Cloudbrain, LLC, a web development firm based in Charlottesville…. We would love to hear any suggestions you may have.As of yet, I haven’t figured out from where they are pulling their data, but they seem to be affiliated with House Values…. More to come …Update 5/8/2007: Having played with it some more, I have yet to find how to zoom in/zoom out.
Selling your home yourself?
Sites ForSaleByOwner.com and Owners.com, for example, allow a seller to post a listing to gain Internet exposure.In the Charlottesville area, these sites just don’t have the marketing pull yet. A very small segment of the market is going to be searching on these sites; when marketing one’s home, it is important to market to both the niche you are targeting (medical residents, eco-friendly buyers, tech sector folks, NGIC employees, etc.) as well as everybody else. There are better options in the Charlottesville area than these sites.Courtesy of Statsaholic: (with the caveat that Alexa’s data is suspect)Courtesy of Google Trends:And perhaps the most important tip: “When it does come time to deal with a buyer, it’s a good idea to have a written preapproval,” Udelson said. Working with a buyer who is preapproved for a mortgage will remove some potential surprises from the closing process.Nichole said that one of the most common problems that a for sale by owner will run into is getting to closing only to find out that the buyer couldn’t afford the house — “causing them to start the selling process all over again.”